Key Takeaways
- Tax on Real Property applies to property in Guernsey and Alderney, with tariffs set across domestic and commercial categories.
- Owners, joint owners and life tenants can be liable for TRP, so non-resident investors should confirm their position before acquiring property.
- Certain properties fall under exemptions or zero-rated categories, while derelict properties, glasshouses and undeveloped sites may face penal rates.
- Compliance involves meeting billing deadlines, notifying changes via the Cadastre register, and the option to appeal an assessment through the dedicated tribunal.
Introduction to Tax on Real Property (TRP) in Guernsey
Property tax in Guernsey is levied through the Tax on Real Property (TRP) system, an annual charge on real property in the Islands of Guernsey, Alderney and Herm. TRP took effect on 1 January 2008, replacing the older Tax on Rateable Value, and rests on the Taxation of Real Property (Guernsey and Alderney) Ordinance, 2007. If you own, or are considering acquiring, real estate in the Bailiwick, this charge applies to you regardless of whether the owner is an individual, a company, or another entity.
This article explains how TRP is assessed, what the tariffs look like, who is liable, the exemptions available, the penal rates on empty and derelict property, and how to dispute an assessment. It is most relevant to foreign owners and investors holding or planning to hold Guernsey property, and to the advisers supporting them. The administering body, the Cadastre, maintains the register on which every charge depends.
Guernsey is not a zero-tax jurisdiction for real property. TRP is a live charge that has expanded since its introduction, and property taxes supplied much of the revenue raised in the 2024 Budget, set against a forecasted structural deficit of £64 million.
Legal Basis: The Taxation of Real Property (Guernsey and Alderney) Ordinance, 2007
The Taxation of Real Property (Guernsey and Alderney) Ordinance, 2007 creates the charge and names it "property tax." It was made under powers in the Taxation of Real Property (Enabling Provisions) (Guernsey and Alderney) Law, 2005.
The Ordinance is not static. It has been amended repeatedly, with Amendment Ordinances issued in 2007, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and later years, and the rate tables in Schedule 1 are substituted each budget cycle.
That mechanism matters for planning. The 2024 Amendment Ordinance came into force on 1 January 2025, and the 2025 Amendment Ordinance took effect on 1 January 2026, each replacing tables A1 to A4 in Part I of Schedule 1.
Alderney follows a partly separate path. Under the Alderney Property Tax (Enabling Provisions) (Guernsey and Alderney) Law, 2020, the States of Alderney may make their own provision for taxing real property there, so owners of Alderney assets should treat that regime as distinct.
TRP tariffs are reset annually by Ordinance. Any figure you budget for is the figure in force for that calendar year, not a fixed long-term rate.
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How TRP Is Assessed: Plan Area, Assessable Units and Property References
TRP is charged per assessable unit. For a building, each square metre of plan area counts as one assessable unit; for land that is not a building, each 50 square metres counts as one unit.
Buildings are measured externally, to the edge of the roof line, using GPS equipment and aerial photography. That mapping is refreshed every three years, so the size on which you are charged reflects what is physically on the ground.
Each property carries a property reference set out in Schedule 1, Part I of the Ordinance. The reference fixes which tariff applies, so two parcels of identical size can be charged very differently depending on how they are categorised.
The older drivers of rateable value have gone. The number of radiators and connection to a main drain, both relevant under the previous system, no longer affect the charge.
Categorisation is where most disagreement arises. A reclassification, for example from "Warehousing" to "Retail," can lift a bill sharply, which is why the property reference is the usual subject of an appeal rather than the measured area.
TRP Tariffs and Rates: Domestic and Commercial Categories
Tariffs are expressed per assessable unit: pounds per square metre for buildings and pounds per 50 square metres for land. The figures below come from the 2026 schedule, in force from 1 January 2026.
| Category | Type | Tariff (£) |
|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | Building | 0.05 |
| Horticulture (glasshouse and non-glasshouse) | Building | 0.07 |
| Development building (domestic) | Building | 1.14 |
| Development building (non-domestic) | Building | 8.45 |
| Publicly owned non-domestic / Exempt | Building | 0.00 |
| Communal flat (Local and Open Market) | Land | 0.31 |
| Retail, Warehousing, Self-catering, Hostelry, Motor and Marine | Land | 0.64 |
| Non-domestic garaging and parking | Land | 7.42 |
Year-on-year movement is the part worth tracking. For 2026, domestic rates rose 8.3%, commercial rates 5%, and parking land 35%, a steep jump for anyone holding car parks or surface parking.
The pattern is not uniform across years. For 2025, all commercial and domestic buildings and land rose 3.2% in line with inflation, a far gentler step than the 2026 increases.
The 2024 changes reshaped the domestic scale. Increases averaged 17%, achieved partly by rebalancing toward larger properties, with the lowest domestic bands (rating 0 to 200) split into three sub-bands carrying their own graduated rates.
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Who Is Liable: Owners, Joint Owners and Life Tenants
Liability for TRP attaches to the owner of the real property, not to an occupying tenant. The notification and payment structure of the Ordinance places the obligation squarely on owners and life tenants.
Ownership form makes no difference. The charge applies to all owners whether the owner is an individual, a company, or another entity, so a foreign-held corporate vehicle is treated the same as a resident individual.
Life tenants sit alongside owners. Section 15 identifies them as persons carrying the duty to notify changes, which confirms they may also bear the charge during the life tenancy.
Co-ownership is treated as a shared obligation. The Ordinance's framework generally makes TRP a joint liability of all registered owners, so each co-owner should expect to be answerable for the full charge.
One point catches investors out: TRP is a tax on property ownership and is not an allowable expense for income tax purposes, a position the Alderney Tax Office has confirmed for its equivalent charge.
Exemptions and Zero-Rated Categories Under TRP
A small number of categories carry a zero tariff. Publicly owned non-domestic buildings (code B10.1) and the residual exempt buildings category (code B11.1) are both rated at £0.00 under the 2026 schedule.
Some uses are charged at a nominal rate rather than zero. Agriculture (code B9.1) is taxed at £0.05 per unit, low enough to be close to negligible for working land.
Alderney is treated differently again. Land in Alderney is zero-rated for TRP and occupier's rate purposes, and that treatment carries through under the Alderney Property Tax.
The exempt category is defined by the schedule rather than by a published narrative list. Schedule 1 enumerates every property reference, and code B11.1 captures the residual exempt buildings, so the correct route to confirming an exemption is to check the reference assigned to your property.
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Penal TRP Rates: Derelict Properties, Glasshouses and Undeveloped Sites
The 2024 Budget targeted property left idle. Policy & Resources proposed a punitive tariff set at five times the standard rate for derelict and empty properties, glasshouses, and sites left undeveloped.
The trigger is sustained non-use. Homes or business premises left empty for more than six months without a suitable reason fall within the increased charge, and development property not completed within three years was also brought into scope.
The threshold has been under review. A proposal sought to extend the non-occupancy trigger from six to 12 months, giving landlords more time to re-let before the penal rate bites.
The five-times figure was the proposed multiplier. Confirm the rate actually enacted in the current Amendment Ordinance before modelling the cost of holding a vacant or derelict asset.
Paying TRP: Billing, Deadlines, Late-Payment Interest and Penalties
TRP is billed by Cadastre, not by the Revenue Service. Each bill covers a calendar year, since the charge is assessed per calendar year under the Ordinance.
Contact runs through the Cadastre office. It operates between 08:30 and 16:00, Monday to Friday, and appointments can be arranged on 01481 221239.
The Ordinance contains offence and penalty provisions, and interest on late payment is a feature of the regime, though the precise rates are managed administratively rather than published as a single headline figure. Confirm the applicable interest and penalty terms with Cadastre when a bill is issued.
One caution for those also paying income tax: the income tax instalment dates of 30 June and 31 December apply to income tax, not to TRP. Do not assume the two share a schedule.
The Cadastre Register, Notifying Property Changes and Building Permits
Cadastre administers the TRP system and maintains the register that drives every assessment. Keeping that register accurate is your responsibility as owner.
The duty to notify is triggered by three kinds of change: anything that alters the plan area (size), the property reference (use), or the ownership. Notification must reach Cadastre in writing by 31 December of the year in which the change took effect.
Notifiable events include:
- New buildings, extensions, demolitions and partial demolitions
- Subdivision of one unit into several units
- Roof space conversions
- Changes of use
Cosmetic work is outside the duty. New windows and similar minor changes need not be reported unless they alter the building's size.
Building permits are monitored independently. Cadastre tracks new and existing permits and periodically writes to owners to check the status of approved works, and owners who receive such a letter should respond or update their position through the online Building Permit Status Tracker.
A useful distinction: the TRP property reference is irrelevant to how a property is classified for planning purposes, and the planning use class is irrelevant to the TRP reference. The two systems run separately.
Appealing Your TRP Assessment: The Tax on Real Property Appeals Tribunal
Disputes are heard by the Tax on Real Property Appeals Panel, established in June 2008. It is independent of the Policy & Resources Committee, the Cadastre Department, and any other States committee, and the process is detailed on the official TRP appeals page.
The route runs in two stages, both governed by short deadlines:
- Write to Cadastre within 28 days of the decision letter requesting reconsideration. Miss this window and the decision becomes final, with no further appeal to the Panel.
- If you remain dissatisfied after that internal review, appeal to the TRP Appeal Tribunal within 28 days of Cadastre's final decision.
Appeals may be posted to the TRP Appeal Panel Clerk, Sir Charles Frossard House, La Charroterie, St Peter Port, Guernsey GY1 1FH, or emailed to trpappealspanel@gov.gg. The procedure follows the Royal Court (Taxation of Real Property) (Appeals) Order, 2013.
A tribunal of three is drawn from a panel of eight members for each case, and it usually holds a case management meeting with the appellant and Cadastre officers before the formal hearing. Volumes are modest: no appeals were received in 2018 or 2019, and of six lodged in 2017, only one reached a full hearing.
Owners of Alderney property follow a separate channel. Since 1 January 2021, their appeals go to the Alderney Property Tax Appeal Tribunal rather than the panel.
TRP for Companies and Property Investors: Practical Considerations
A corporate owner gets no concession on TRP itself. The charge applies to every owner alike, and because it is a tax on ownership rather than a trading cost, it is not an allowable expense for income tax purposes.
The income tax side sits separately but matters to the overall picture. Income from exploiting Guernsey property is taxed at 20%, as is income received by a publicly regulated utility company and income from Guernsey retail businesses with taxable profits above £500,000, as the PwC summary sets out.
High-net-worth investors relying on the income tax cap should look closely at its limits. The cap does not cover income from Guernsey land and property, so rental returns fall outside its protection.
Two trends raise the cost of holding investment property. A phased withdrawal of tax relief for interest on let commercial property has been proposed, mirroring the residential withdrawal and applying to individuals and entities alike, while the 35% rise in parking land TRP for 2026 makes commercial car parks and surface parking a noticeably heavier line in the budget.
Deductibility against corporate income tax beyond the confirmed Alderney position is not settled in the published material. Take advice on the treatment for your specific entity before assuming any offset.
Conclusion
For a non-resident business owner, the decisive question is not whether Guernsey's property tax system is complicated but whether the liability position is settled before any acquisition completes, because ownership itself triggers the charge and penal rates can apply the moment a property falls into the wrong category. The Cadastre register, the notification obligations, and the appeal mechanism all exist, but they only protect a taxpayer who engages with them actively and in time.
How Expanship Can Help Your Business in Guernsey
Expanship supports foreign owners with the property tax side of holding Guernsey real estate, from confirming the correct property reference and tariff to meeting Cadastre notification duties and assessing exposure to penal rates. That work sits within a wider service set for foreign-owned entities operating in the Bailiwick.
- Company incorporation and entity setup
- Registered agent and registered office
- Tax registration and annual filing
- Ongoing compliance management, including TRP notifications
- Accounting and bookkeeping
- Introductions to local banking
To discuss your property holdings or a new entity, contact Expanship Guernsey.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Guernsey levies an annual Tax on Real Property (TRP) on real estate in Guernsey, Alderney and Herm, in force since 1 January 2008. It is the sole recurring property-level charge, since the islands operate no local government taxes.
TRP is charged per assessable unit, with each square metre of a building counting as one unit and each 50 square metres of land counting as one unit. The unit count is multiplied by the tariff fixed for the property's reference, and those tariffs are reset annually by Amendment Ordinance.
Yes. The charge applies to all owners regardless of whether the owner is an individual, a company, or another entity, so a non-resident corporate owner is liable in the same way as a resident. TRP is also not an allowable expense for income tax purposes.
A property used as a home or business and left empty for more than six months without a suitable reason can attract a penal charge, and development property not completed within three years was brought into the same regime under the 2024 Budget. The proposed multiplier was five times the standard tariff, and the enacted figure should be confirmed against the current Amendment Ordinance.
First write to Cadastre within 28 days of the decision letter to request reconsideration; missing that deadline makes the decision final. If you are still dissatisfied after the internal review, you have 28 days from Cadastre's final decision to appeal to the independent TRP Appeal Tribunal.
You must tell Cadastre in writing by 31 December of the year in which any change to size, use, or ownership takes effect. Extensions, demolitions, subdivisions, roof conversions and changes of use are all notifiable, while purely cosmetic work that does not alter size is not.
Legal Disclaimer
The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or professional advice. While we strive to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of the content, laws and regulations are subject to change, and the application of laws can vary widely based on specific facts and circumstances.
Readers should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel tailored to their individual situation. Expanship and its authors disclaim any liability for actions taken or not taken based on the content of this article.
For specific advice regarding your business setup, compliance requirements, or any legal matters, please consult with qualified legal and tax professionals in the relevant jurisdiction.
